THE BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU

On December 6, 1953, at the Viet Bac war zone, the government had a meeting,
which included: Ho Chi Minh President, Vo Nguyen Giap General, Pham Van Dong
comrade, and Truong Chinh comrade. They decided to release and were
determined to win the Dien Bien Phu campaign. Therefore, they established the
campaign headquarters, and Vo Nguyen Giap General played commander.
To prepare for this historic campaign, both of front line and rear were all ready
with the highest morale. About 55 000 soldiers from the fronts marched to Dien
Bien Phu, and ten thousand weapons were transported to the battlefield. And
about 30 000 people from the rear joined transporting food, clothes, and
medicine … to Dien Bien Phu.
On January 25, 1954, our soldiers were at the gathering location. They were all
ready to shoot their guns for our plan “kill fast, solve fast”. However, our enemies
had strengthened the defense force firmly. At the same time, on our side, the
placement of artillery was not completed, so the Operation Command decided to
amend the plan, continued to prepare all aspects, and moved to “hit firmly,
advance firmly”.
The Dien Bien Phu campaign took place in 3 phases. The first phase, was from
March 13 to March 17, 1954. On March 13, we destroyed the enemy’s defensive
position in the North: Him Lam. In the Him Lam battle, Phan Dinh Giot bravely
used his body to fill the hole where the enemies could shoot from the inside out
so that his teammates could defeat the enemies. Therefore, he died.
Not long after that, on March 15, we destroyed the Doc Lap stronghold. Also on
that day, Piroth Colonel, the French artillery commander at Dien Bien Phu, used a
grenade to kill himself. The reason that made him kill himself was his honor. On
Piroth’s side, he was subjective and despised our country, he thought that his
artillery was enough for the battle, but it was not. Before he killed himself, he
went around his area to apologize to the other mates.
On March 16, also the last day of phase one of our campaign, we defeated many
enemy counterattacks at the Ban Keo stronghold.
Continue to phase two, which took place from March 30 to April 30. After more
than 10 days of building a battleground, besieged with hundred kilometers of
trenches, we attacked and destroyed the E, D1, D2, and C1 strongholds on the
Eastern hills and 106, 311 strongholds in the Northwest direction of Muong Thanh
airport. But we failed in attacking A1, C2, and 105 strongholds, thereby, half of C1
hill was recaptured by the enemies.
We developed the battlefield, attacked, and destroyed the 105 stronghold from
April 16 to April 18. From April 17 to April 23, we successfully destroyed the 206
stronghold. We repelled many enemy counterattacks to regain Muong Thanh
airport, combined with sniping and sending anti-aircraft artillery to the Muong
Thanh field, then controlled to eliminate the enemies’ air supply.